So we had an AMA ( ask me anything chat) session on BHM‘s Facebook and Periscope yesterday, and someone wanted to know why we are doing the annual Nigeria PR Report and what impact I think it’s had.

It’s a question I get asked a lot. Why are you doing this? What’s in it for you and your agency? Are you building some sort of credentials so you can run for PRCAN presidency? Or you’re just using all the campaign to position your agency? Someone even suggested it’s a covert spy operation to help us know what’s happening with competition. And I laughed in Itsekiri

My answer? None of the above could be farther from the truth. But it’s not the first time I’m being asked such. In 1998 when I started organising the Youth Awards for Excellence in Music, YAFEM, there were many at the time who thought I was doing so many of such free, popular events to position myself to run for PMAN presidency. You’re laughing too? Hahahahahahahahaha!

I believe in building ecosystems. I believe in baking bigger pies so everyone can have a bigger share. I believe in making communities better than I met them. I believe in building tomorrow today.

That’s why we do NECLive every year, for free. That’s why we publish Nigeria PR Report every year. That’s why I do most of the things I do. Chatting with a friend this morning, about this article from The Atlantic, it suddenly dawned on me that all the industries I work in are endangered: PR = endangered. Media = endangered. Entertainment = endangered. To fold one’s arms, and continue business as usual, is to be digging one’s grave without knowing it.

I believe the PR Report brings something we desperately need to save our businesses: data. We need to know what’s happened, what’s happening, how it happened, why it happened, etc etc if we are to plot a good future for ourselves and those coming behind. We must have the kind of insight that takes us into the minds of the market, the minds of the consumer, the minds of government, the minds of our customers, and other stakeholders, if we are to potentially make informed decisions around our individual businesses and the industry in general. We need to know what areas to invest in, what skills to build, what new markets are opening up, what new tools could make distribution and reporting better; what technology we could utilize to transform our work, and ultimately our businesses and our clients’. How do you build a multi billion dollar industry while you’re winking in the dark? You simply cannot!

As PR people, we like to use that quote Richard Branson has denied owning: ‘If I was down to my last dollar, I’d spend it on PR’. We like to tease potential clients, asking them to not ‘wink in the dark. We like to complain about so called ‘digital marketing’ pulling the rug from our feet; we like to give advertisers and media buyers the side eye, insisting they’re getting paid so much for doing so little.

But the joke is on us, really. If we really want anyone to ‘spend their last dollar’ on public relations, then we must do better than we currently are doing. To do better, we need to know better. To know better means having the right data to help with strategy and planning and measurement and billing. We must pul the wool from our own eyes first, before asking multinationals who have built big businesses, or SMEs building amazing businesses, to stop ‘winking in the dark.’

One of two things eventually happens to endangered species: the are either rescued and preserved, or they go extinct. I see a big opportunity for PR now and in the future (I see the same future for entertainment and media, and it’s not even because I’m afraid of what will happen to me and my family should these three industries go down :|); a big opportunity with governments, with consumer companies, with technology and media. There’s a higher probability that our industries will morph into something formidable if we continue to do things differently, if we continue to innovate and self-disrupt. The entire BHM vision is built on the belief that Africa will deliver the brands, businesses, leaders, thinking, tools and nations that’ll run the world in a matter of years. And we believe it is possible.

I wish you long life, with good health and all the blessings you desire and deserve.

But my friend Yemisi Agare Aiyenuyo can no longer have any of those.

My friend from University of Ibadan; my friend from Agbowo and Awo Hall; my friend Yemisi will never have long life. Never have all these things you pray and wish for.

At 12 O’Clock today, September 10, 2015, my friend Yemisi will be in the grave. Lowered six feet below, as the preacher reads those verses I’ve now become too familiar with.

At 12 O’Clock today, as you prepare to have your lunch, my friend’s husband and friends and siblings will be pouring dust on her casket.

My friend Yemisi is dead.

DEAD.

Today, I will not tell the story of how I met her through another amazing friend Ngozi Abamba. I will not tell the story of all the mischief of UI. Not telling the story of Yemisi’s kindness and generousity; of unpaid loans and unending favours.

I shall not bother you with a story today.

Maybe tomorrow when the pallbearers and pastors and preachers and mourners are gone.

Maybe tomorrow when my tears have dried and I can see clearer.

Maybe tomorrow when I’m awake and accept that my friend Yemisi is dead.

It’s already five years since we launched Nigerian Entertainment Today, the multi platform ‘newspaper’ that reinvented how entertainment and celebrity lifestyle is covered in Nigeria.

When our website thenet.ng launched on November 23, 2009, to be followed by the weekly paper on April 26, 2010, it was the beginning of many things: an opportunity to deliver a 24 hour channel for entertainment news in a country where you had to wait for the weekend pages. It was also an opportunity to determine whether indeed Nigerians cared for the kind of content we believed in or indeed, if it was possible, as we thought, to gather the kind of content that would sustain this kind of platform.

Today, this is where we are: kicking off yet another venture, a travel into books.

Many regularly read our content online and offline. But even more are those who may never have had the opportunity. Many have desired to have some particular contents in their libraries, in a format that supports storage. And there are those who just want company at home or on the go, and they deserve that little friend to talk to, that silly book to chat with ‘just for a couple of minutes’.

That’s what you have – the NET Book Series, starting with ‘Wanderings…’, a book of entertainment to keep at home or take with you.

Wanderings of a Rapidly Degenerating Mind is a careful collection of the greatest pieces by Chris Ihidero who is not only an accomplished writer and filmmaker, but also the chairman of the editorial board of Nigerian Entertainment Today. As the title already tells you, the gentleman is not all gentle, not at all ‘well’.

These are some of the works that made people insult him on Twitter, cause some to befriend him on Facebook and made many decide he has a knot missing somewhere.

The pieces are as varying as Chris’s interests, but the style, uniquely his. And it’s that style, I believe, that transforms every writing, from just another article, another column, into a movie – something that grabs you by the collar and makes you sit on the edge of your chair, until the final full stop. You know, something that makes you ask ‘oh, did he just say that?’ ‘Does that mean what I think it does?’ ‘Wait! OMG!’.

And to be honest, most of these articles even have ‘Part 2’ and ‘Part 3’.

I just read a pitch from a 19 year old that entirely lifted my spirit. My day is made already. There are so many brilliant kids out there looking for opportunities. If you have knocked on doors that never opened or had doors slammed on your face you’ll know what it means to have a foot in the door.

Never take access for granted. Never abuse an opportunity. There are many who will give anything to have the ‘Yes’ you’re taking for granted, and what determines if it’s a ‘YES’ or ‘NO’ is NOT ALWAYS within your control. You can only do your best. Be good, Very good, at what you do. Be ‘exactly what the doctor recommended’, but know that you are enjoying an opportunity. Use it well

For 2 years (1995 and 1996), I wrote to everyone that mattered in media & entertainment. I wanted an opportunity to intern. I did not get a single response. In 1998 it took me the entire year to get a venue (Party House on Allen) and financial support (Zmirage) for my first major event (YAFEM).

In 2004, fresh out of UI, I paraded Encomium Magazine for several months, wrote plenty pieces, & begged for opportunity to be a reporter. Between 1998 and 2004 I spent time squatting with Ayo Animashaun and Charles Mayomi (Father U Turn’s elder bro). When Animashaun faced hard times and ‘moved’ into his office (a ‘shop’ actually, inside Sahadatu plaza, off Allen), I moved in with him. We shared bathroom and toilet with the guards. Only a few people knew we slept there.

One day 2face and Blackface came visiting. We gave them a ride in Animashaun’s beetle and dropped them off at Toyin roundabout. In the rain. 2 and Black were going to see a potential financier. They were looking for a ‘YES’. You know the rest of the story

Long journey really. Plenty story

Do you think you’re doing well because you’re THAT good? Know this: a couple of ‘YES’ can change your life for good. A couple of ‘NO’, for bad

The lesson for me is this: although I am now in a position where I can say I’m living my dreams, I do understand that I’m here because I had people give me opportunities, I was prepared for those opportunities and I was fortunate to use them well. I got a ‘YES’ from those I needed to squat with as I tried to escape from Okokomaiko. I got a ‘YES’ from the venue owner (Jerry Anazia) and Zmirage. I got a ‘YES’ (finally) from Encomium and THISDAY and Punch (I had earlier failed a test to work at The Punch). I got a lot of ‘YES’ from all the musicians and actors that came on board when I set out in PR and I also got a ‘YES’ from the corporate brands that joined us much later

I’m an average writer at best. I finished Uni with a 3rd class and had no formal training in journalism or PR. But I had dream. I learned all I had to and I worked hard and looked for opportunities. God used men and women to open the doors, and here we are

I still have a long way to go but I can see clearly how far I’ve come. Since 1995. I see what the future holds if I don’t mess it up.

I’m sorry. The document from a 19 year old set me off on this rant. I’m dazzled when I see young people determined to change their lives

I’m going to do something. Can you please send me a mail if you’re between 18 and 25, work in PR, media or social media. Subject: twitter rant. I’m going to request you do just one thing (as a test) and I will commit to supporting as many as I can in different relevant ways.

The summary of what we are going to talk about is how PR is a more important and instructive practice than Advertising, and how PR has failed in a lot of ways to occupy that throne and use it well. We will also talk about how advertising has become extremely important to companies, corporations and individuals, and how it continues to garner the kind of respect that it does. Finally we will discuss how both practices, if we are not careful, and things continue in their current direction, MAY go extinct in a few years.

In Nigeria, most PR agencies do not yet know the language of social. They don’t use the platforms and they don’t understand the communities. PR is stuck in that era where we think that once we get our stories out in the newspapers, and onto television channels like Channels and NTA, and we can go back to clients with clippings and reports, then we have done a great job. PR Globally moved beyond that many years ago.

I am going to talk through the slides and I want us to have a conversation. I want to give you my own understanding of what we do, my understanding of what you do, how both practices can help each other, how both practices have failed to use some tools and some skills, and how we have given that opportunity to outsiders at the risk of our profession.

Most people believe that advertising is very critical to a brand’s success and survival, whether in terms of taking a product to the market, or building brand, or with regard to communication in any way. Up till now, most people still do not know what PR is or what PR does. Most people believe stories that do not even exist. A lot of the time, what we think is the case is not exactly so.

Who knows the story of David and Goliath? What exactly do you think happened? From what we have read from books, from history, from the bible, what exactly happened with David and Goliath?

Any Christians here?

He killed him. He destroyed the giant. Anybody else? We all agree right?

Who has a contrary opinion or information about what happened? Who has read anything elsewhere or has other information?

In actual fact, credible records have it that Goliath was partially blind and so he could only win a battle at close range. And David understood that.

So let us take this back to PR and advertising. The entire world believes that advertising is extremely important. In fact, the first PR agency in Nigeria, Quadrant, was founded by Insight, which is an advertising agency. This misconception needs to change if advertising itself wants to do its job better and if PR is to ever have a career and a future, and I will explain as I go on.

This picture of Buhari with the young boy, what does it suggest?

That he is a family man.

That he likes kids.

He is accessible.

He takes time out.

He is emotional.

Fantastic.

The picture of the general in his military uniform, what does it suggest?

That he is the opposite.

The picture of Zahra Buhari, what does it suggest to you?

Beauty.

Sophistication.

The picture of Buhari’s wife compared to say, the wife of the current President – what does it suggest to you?

Calmness.

Attractiveness.

Do we agree that it is possible that all these entire perceptions are wrong? Do you agree that it’s possible that the Buhari in the military outfit is a kind man?

In fact most of you see here, from Buhari and the boy, was a photoshoot – it was staged to create that kind of perception.

The photo of Zahra Buhari was carefully chosen. If you see the other photo where she is smiling, she is not exactly as beautiful as this.

We believe these things – even the most brilliant of minds – because it speaks to what we like and we expect. We do not even interrogate it. So it is easy to sell Buhari the General as heartless.

What do you think worked for Barack Obama’s rise to the top of American politics?

There are several things. Who can give me ideas?

Charisma.

Change.

Anything else?

Perceived competence?

Now what do we think worked against him in his first term as America’s President? I think most importantly, what worked against him was that he was not prepared for that office. He was not prepared for all the damage that had been done. It is easy to campaign on promises, but when you walk into the room, it is different. For example if or when Buhari becomes President, he will suddenly realize the extent of damage and then we will all become impatient.

So essentially, some of the time, these misconceptions exist and thrive, and they have destroyed industries and built others. They have built countries and they have destroyed countries.

Now what is the truth? The truth, as I have said earlier, is that Public Relations should be the master brand that allows experiential marketing, advertising and all other elements to thrive. Public Relations is what we have shown with the pictures we just saw. It is what we showed with the story of David and Goliath. It is what we have shown with the story of the protest boy and the dog in the US Black movement protest. There are some things that are actually false that we believe based on what they said to us when we were growing up.

Public Relations is the reason why the whole world would think that this gentleman is about to stab this other guy, and most people will not even interrogate and investigate to discover that this is not the case. Public Relations is the reason we all believe that Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is an incompetent and clueless President – you do not know him, you have never been to Chibok, and you don’t go to Aso Rock. You only believe what you do based on what you have encountered in the Public Space. Public Relations is the reason why nobody sees Dangote’s bank account. Nobody knows how much he is worth. But if I ask everybody in this room who the richest Black man on earth is, we will all agree it is Aliko Dangote.

The media here is still the platform through which the public can get to experience these stories and the way PR has used the media here for decades has been as a distant third party platform. So you work for this gentleman and this incident has happened and you want to tell that story, so you then you tell this story through Channels or through AIT or through HipTV and STV.

The question is, do people believe it or not? Will people believe it or not? Advertising can do better if it understands the importance and the value of PR and if it uses PR more. PR on its part needs to understand what it brings to the table and how to re-ignite that credibility, because this question is not just a Nigerian problem – it is a global problem for PR. If you speak to people from the United States or the United Kingdom, it is a consistent problem. PR itself has not come out to establish itself by saying – this is the value I bring to the table.

Now we have seen the issue with PR. We have seen how Advertising can use PR better, and how PR itself can do with better PR. These practices actually should coexist and help each other.

But guess what? I have some bad news. In May last year, I was speaking in Mauritius the night after Google announced the experiment with their self-driving car. It was the point where the whole world thought Google Glass was going global. It was a PR conference of senior PR people from governments across the continent and I said to them that until we realise our role as storytellers, until we realise our role as a principal of sorts to communities, we will continue to allow outsiders to come in and speak to our people. It is like having a company and you don’t engage your staff, you have no policy for internal and external communications, and you do not tell your own story – others are going to talk about you anyway. And it may not always be in your interest.

Now the gentleman spoke about the developers and the IT guys.

Today when you think of Google, what kind of company do you think Google is? What business do you think Google is into?

Ideas creation.

Aggregating.

Technology.

Now Google in reality is a tech company but Google is about the biggest advertising agency in the world. Google is about the biggest PR agency in the world and if the people who work in PR and Advertising had some sort of foresight, we should have been the ones creating companies like Google and Facebook. It is a shame that if you do a search of the top 10 social media platforms across the world, it is likely not one is owned by an Advertising agency or by a PR agency.

Meanwhile we are the communicators – we are the ones that help the brands tell their stories better. We are the ones that take products to the market. We are the ones who understand consumer psychology. We are the masters of demographics and psychographics.

So if we know these people behave, and we know their habits that much, and we understand trends, how come it is that while we were sleeping, Google became the monster it is today? How is it that Google was mapping the entire world when nobody was asking for maps? How is it that Mark Zuckerberg was creating Facebook because he wanted people to be able to do this? How come some kids developed Snapchat when advertising agencies have been advising brands on how to speak to teenagers for eons?

So it is like this is our own party and we didn’t even come late – we came after the party has ended and everybody has gone home. Now we are struggling to understand how to use these platforms. As I said earlier, the beginning should be us understanding how to use these platforms, and the end should be us understanding that Advertising or PR has moved from just knowing how to tell good stories to creating the kind of experiences that social platforms provide for brands and their consumers.

I am going to ask a very stupid question: If you woke up this morning and the first thing you did was pick your phone, put up your hand.

All hands up. See?

So, we are the best people to know that fact from 20 years ago because we have all the data regarding how habits were changing from desktops to laptops, and from laptops to mobiles. We are the people best placed to know how people are consuming entertainment and to know how people are engaging with brands. The kind of intelligence that comes with advertising in Nigeria in terms of media consumption is unbelievable, and it is even greater globally.

Instead presently, our future is in the hands of people who don’t even care about our industry. I’m going to use a very silly Nigerian example – Linda Ikeji is not a member of NIPR. She has never sat for the APCON examination. She is not an advertiser. She is not a media practitioner. She is not a PR person.

But she is engaging with more communities than with any of the brands that we work for.

The most academic of women; the most intellectual of women constantly have Linda Ikeji open on their phones, laptops and iPads. How is she able to build such platforms without insight or access to the kind of intelligence that both industries have? Now you see advertisers struggling to pay for the backdrop of Linda Ikeji’s website or mobile site. You see PR people struggling to put sponsored posts on the site – sponsored posts that one can tell are sponsored anyway. Or you go to YouTube and you see all the advert videos. They say you can skip this advert in how many seconds? I’m sure everybody waits to just skip!

Today, everybody is talking about wearables and connected devices. Zuckerberg is pushing the lot. Companies that do not do advertising are using technology to create products that will determine how consumers spend their free time or their education time. Companies are thinking, “If you have a car that has 4 windows – why can’t all of those windows be LED screens? Why does it have to be static? If you have all these things around your house – if you have bulbs, you have doors, why can’t they be smart?” These companies are not traditionally into advertising, but the moment we begin to use those things and enjoy them, then they begin to deliver advertising to us. We then take our client budget there!

Do we understand?

We will see pens and wristwatches and shoes and cars that suddenly have become smart and because consumers constantly look for new ways of living, everybody is going to move there. And even when you don’t like it, your brand will suddenly realise that oh, there are 75 million young people who use Snapchat per hour. They will tell you, “I want to be there! If that is where they are spending their time, then I want to be there to speak to them! “

The best advertising agencies even in Nigeria, can employ the best developers in Nigeria. If Insight wants to employ everybody at CC Hub today, they can employ everybody and shut down that place.

So why do we not understand that trend and key into it on time? Why are we just adopters? Even if we are early adopters, it does not do our profession any good. Why are we not building the platforms that can provide these experiences? Car companies are doing it. In fact, while speaking to the PR guys in Mauritius, I told them “Our brands, the brands we want to work for like BMW – these brands are thinking ahead!” At the CES this January, Mercedes Benz displayed their first self-driving car! These companies are thinking in that direction, and the more it works, the more consumers adopt them. Definitely some will fail and some will work but the way habits are going, consumers will continue to look for new ways to live. Why do we want to just keep doing follow-follow?

Finally, if it is too late for us to build the Facebooks, if it’s too late for us to build the Tumblr’s and Instagrams; if it’s too late for us to start building anything that can capture the imagination and the attention of consumers, why don’t we create the kind of content that captures audiences?

Facebook for example, cannot survive without content – interesting content from everybody is the reason Facebook thrives. Last year, Facebook started their video programme that makes sure that you can post your videos directly on Facebook. In a meeting with Facebook two weeks ago, they told my colleague from the office that when Beyonce dropped her surprise album and the videos, they realized that Facebook was sending a lot of traffic to YouTube because everybody was sharing the links on Facebook. That was what made them do this.

Twitter also moved from when you could not post photos on twitter; the time when your tweets could not have photos in them and so you had to click to see a photo. Now they have bought Vine and now you can post your videos.

So these platforms as great as they are, cannot survive without content. They cannot survive without you and I creating the right content and putting them on these platforms. So if we cannot build; if you are not a tech company and you do not want to battle Google and Twitter and Facebook and we want to focus on creating fantastic campaigns for our clients, we need to understand that we want to rule those platforms and create the kind of content that consumers can engage with, and love – content that can sell the kind of messages that we want to sell. This is what PR originally is supposed to do. PR is supposed to be about great storytelling.

Great advertising companies today tell better stories than PR companies, but how can we take it further to ensure that if there is a Falz the Bahd Guy on Instagram who is creating this content that everybody loves, that it is a creation of X3M Ideas or DBB or BHM?

Who followed the #HardGuy hash tag? Why are we not the ones creating these conversations that can engage people, and make them do it on our platforms? Why is our approach to advertising or to PR not owning Omotola or Wizkid or Olamide? Why is our approach not creating that kind of content beyond product placement, or brand endorsement or ambassadorship?

We need to understand that these guys may have hijacked our industry and they need to understand that they cannot keep these platforms running without our content. Until we use those platforms to propagate our stories and actually tell stories –just like how people go to the cinema and pay to watch movies – what might happen in a few years is that the clients will no longer need us.

Because Google exists now, if you sign up to Google, you don’t need an advertising agency to run your Google campaign. It is simple; you take the training – any idiot can do it.

I look at how much I spend to keep my agency working for me, and I look at what I need to spend if I were to work with say, AdDynamo in Nigeria – this is not an advertising agency right? But they are doing advertising and they are commanding bigger budgets than a lot of digital ad agencies. If we don’t understand that and jump on it and own it, what is going to happen is that these guys are going to take our meals and push us out of business. When they do, the trend will never reverse. There will never be a time when the habits will come back to the days of writing a brief. It will never go back there.

It will not be just a few bad weeks – it will be that what people given birth to in 10 or 15 years time know as advertising will be Google AdSense and AdWords. That is what they will know!

So I think we have a mutual challenge. I think the work is to understand this threat and to understand the opportunities there and come together to have the kind of conversations that make sure that we take advantage of what the future offers.

I’ve always loved success stories. Especially when the road forth was fraught with intrigues, challenges and circumstantial obstacles. The gist is usually sweeter to listen to then.

When most others told you it couldn’t be done, you turned a deaf ear and kept your eye on the prize.

When they thought you were way too ambitious to want succeed in the spheres about which your peers hadn’t even dared to dream, you actualised it.

When you toiled without a hoot for your health (even though I did, and will continue to nag you about it!), braved each weather and fell under a number of times, you got right back up, dusted yourself off and didn’t look back.

When despite those early circumstances that augured otherwise, you not only decided from the get-go what you were going to become, you actually declared it. Truly today, it has come to pass.

The alias/moniker – AyeniTheGreat – which you’ve proudly worn like a badge for as long as I have known you, (and which I’d found a tad conceited at first) has metamorphosed before my very eyes, into what you have truly become today.. GREAT.

I’m glad I was privileged to witness pretty much the entire plot. And I couldn’t be more proud of you, AYENI ADEKUNLE SAMUEL, a.k.a AYENI THE GREAT. Congratulations. The world is yours.